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Video Shows Witness Accounts in Fla. Face-Eating Case

Officials released the video showing one witness and a sheriff's deputy giving their accounts of the 2016 incident involving Austin Harrouff, who is set to stand trial for killing a Martin County couple.

(Published Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018)

Newly released videos detail witness accounts to the gruesome 2016 deaths of a Martin County couple by a Florida college student who is accused of chewing on the dead man's face.

Austin Harrouff, 20, faces first degree murder charges for the Aug. 15 deaths of John Stevens, a 59-year-old landscaper, and his wife, Michelle Mishcon, 53, inside their Tequesta home. Harrouff, who was 19 at the time of the attacks, also faces an attempted murder charge for stabbing a neighbor, 47-year-old Jeff Fisher, who tried to help the couple.

Martin County Sheriff’s Deputy Wayne Trocan, one of the first responders on the scene, told investigators in a videotaped account that he saw a "huge trail of blood" as deputies made their way up the couple's driveway.

They found Harrouff on top of Stevens, chewing his face. Trocan said his stun gun did not work on Harrouff and began kicking the teen's head to get him off Stevens. It took numerous deputies and bites from a police dog to pull him off. Trocan said they didn't shoot Harrouff because they feared hitting Stevens.

Alleged 'Face-Biter's' Interview With Dr. Phil Released

A Florida college student accused of randomly killing a couple in their garage and chewing on the dead man's face told television psychologist Phil McGraw he was fleeing a demon-like figure named Daniel and only had a vague recollection of the slayings.

In another video, neighbor Jeff Fischer tells investigators that he heard strange noises and then a scream coming from the home next door. Fischer saw Harrouff throwing Mishcon to the ground near the garage and ran to help.

"He turned and looked at me and said, 'You want no part of this, you want no part of me,' one of the two, and then from his right hand swung,” Fisher said.

As two began to tussle, Fischer realized he had been cut and threw Harrouff on the ground before running inside the couple's home.

Prosecutors have said they will not seek the death penalty in the case, with Harrouff’s legal team saying they will argue he is not guilty by reason of insanity – arguing he was suffering from a psychotic episode at the time. Toxicology results showed he had no detectable hallucinogenic drugs in his system at the time of the attacks.

Harrouff allegedly told deputies minutes after the slayings that they would find no drugs in his system, but he had suffered a burned esophagus, possibly from ingesting chemicals found in the couple's garage.